Chapter 240: I Won’t Spoil It (1)

The scene of the face‑to‑face confrontation.

Though feeling awkward, Hyukwon still glared at THE-H from across the table.

His eyes were full of things he wanted to say, but only a faint breath escaped his tightly shut lips.

Given the gravity of the situation, no one dared to speak first, and everyone sat silently.

In the silence, peaceful lyrics played in the background.

The evidence brought in by Composer Hyukwon.

It was a claim that THE-H’s plagiarized song’s verse had been taken from the verse of an old pop song.

justafuture inmyheart

wecan be the every thing

Justafuture

Justafuture

A pleasant melody that made you hum along without realizing.

It was an old pop song, so some of the A&R team members were hearing it for the first time.

Section Chief Kim Seyoung of the A&R team slowly closed and then opened his eyes.

Listening to it side-by-side with the song he had heard before made the resemblance clear.

“It’s similar.”

Just judging by the verse alone, it was ambiguous whether the plagiarism claim would hold.

However, the highlight part clearly had room for controversy.

One of the A&R team members roughly summarized the situation.

“Hyukwon is claiming this song plagiarized his work…”

“Because it’s true.”

Hyukwon couldn’t hold back and spoke sharply.

Though THE-H glared fiercely at him, he failed to notice Hyukwon was just as unable to control his emotions.

“I played it for him before. He came to the studio. It was exactly that chorus part—that very line that’s the problem.”

The Doubles staff nodded along, listening to the two.

The two already had a connection, and there was context for the song being played for him—and on top of that, Hyukwon had started working on it three months before the song camp.

In that case, there was no choice but to take one person’s side.

Section Chief Kim Seyoung opened his mouth in a calm voice.

“Composer Bae Junhwan, do you happen to have any files that can confirm your project start date?”

There weren’t any.

Even if he did bring them out, it would only confirm he was the latecomer, so no excuse would save him.

If the verse had at least been completely original, he might’ve had a leg to stand on, but now that even that had been revealed as plagiarism, there was nothing he could do.

Hyukwon let out a dry chuckle and spoke.

“Of course not. It’s plagiarism, after all.”

Now, the only choice was whether to keep arguing and make things more complicated, or back out quietly before word spread further.

Two options were laid out before THE-H.

He reluctantly made a hard decision.

“…I’ll give it up.”

.

.

.

.

“Hey, you bastard.”

Just outside the meeting room in the hallway, as soon as the staff walked out, a sharp voice rang out.

It was Composer THE-H who quietly cursed under his breath.

He let his emotions burst out.

“This is why, damn it, you should never take in a brat with no manners.”

“…What?”

“I pampered you and raised you up, and this is how you stab me in the back?”

The kid had just ruined the perfect table he’d set.

With his teeth clenched and reddened eyes, THE-H glared at Hyukwon.

Hyukwon’s lips trembled.

“Backstab? Let’s get the facts straight. Who exactly got stabbed in the back here?”

“Hey!”

“You have no conscience? You’re not even sorry? Bet it felt fucking great to steal a song from a rookie and sell it to a major company.”

This was the person who had once led him down this path.

Because of that, even when he knew he was being used, he let it slide many times.

But this time, it had crossed the line.

Hyukwon couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“Oh right, if you had a conscience, you wouldn’t have uploaded every damn song I wrote under your name.”

“You little fuck…!”

A composer with no real talent, only greed.

A washed-up man who should’ve already stepped aside, but his lingering attachment kept pulling him back.

He just needed one hit.

One hit, no matter the means or method.

The moment that mindset starts to take over, the artist becomes nothing but a disgrace.

Slam—.

THE-H grabbed Hyukwon by the collar.

“Keugh!”

Hyukwon twisted his body, struggling.

He gripped him so tightly, it felt like all the air had been knocked out of him.

A curse escaped him without thinking.

“You’ve gone fucking insane….”

“Hey.”

“You gonna let go or what?”

Struggle struggle.

Hyukwon was helplessly pushed back by THE-H’s iron grip.

The guy was built solid—he couldn’t shake him off by force.

“Let… go…!”

Hyukwon shouted urgently and barely managed to push THE-H away.

Just then, THE-H sensed a piercing stare from beside him.

Ah.

“Should I call the police?”

A youthful face glared at him with cold eyes.

A man who wasn’t there a second ago.

THE-H belatedly recognized the familiar face.

It was Stardust’s Do Seohan.

That deadly gaze seriously looked like he’d call the police….

“Fuck.”

Thud—.

In the end, THE-H gritted his teeth and let go.

“Hello!”

About two weeks later, in Doubles’ second-floor recording studio, Composer Hyukwon looked visibly brighter.

With a slightly excited voice, he spoke.

“Ah, I’m a bit nervous. I’ve tagged along with the seniors before, but this is my first time writing a song under my own name.”

The company had assigned him a professional producer, but for today, he was the main composer.

Though he wasn’t that experienced, he was also going to do some light directing.

He seemed nervous about it, but not displeased.

“Haha, I look forward to working with you.”

“Me too!!!”

Seo Haim replied in a high-spirited voice, and laughter burst out in the recording room.

When they met in front of the meeting room last time, he didn’t know—but she turned out to be more cheerful and talkative than expected.

Hyukwon smiled brightly and said,

“Alright then, let’s do our best. We’ll start one by one.”

The recording began in earnest.

“Let’s go in order.”

“No, let the youngest go first.”

“Seohan, show them! Let’s go, Do Seohan!”

“…Huh?”

Pushed forward by the older members, I ended up going first.

Cha Seongbin grinned and spoke to Hyukwon.

“He’s our team’s proud Main Dancer. You can definitely look forward to it.”

“…But this is a vocal recording.”

As someone pointed that out in response to Cha Seongbin’s words, Hyukwon nodded with a pleased smile.

“Ah, I’m really looking forward to it.”

I thought it was just something he said out of politeness.

Honestly, at that moment, I didn’t really think much of it….

“Let’s record the part now.”

Through the recording booth window, the composer’s eyes sparkled unusually as he looked at me.

“Yes, sir.”

First of all, the intro part didn’t have any high notes, so it wasn’t particularly difficult.

I drank plenty of water and cleared my throat.

Just like I practiced at dawn, I carried the intro softly.

“Ah—ah.”

A suffocating silence

Drew in deeper, and reclaimed a slight light

—That’s it.

The short part came to an end.

At the same time, an exclamation burst out of Hyukwon’s mouth.

“Wow, that was really good!”

“Ah, thank you.”

The recording ended rather cleanly, but since it wasn’t a difficult part to begin with, I just gave an awkward smile.

But then—

Words started pouring out like a rapid-fire gun, unexpectedly.

“…I think you’re a musical genius. How do you bring this part to life so well?”

“…?”

“I actually had a dream last night, and the intro verse was exactly your voice. It feels like the ideal version I had in mind just got perfectly realized right in front of me? Wow, I’m getting hyped. Seriously, this is amazing!”

Huh?

That much?

While I was rolling my eyes, I could see Seo Ian holding back a laugh from beyond the recording booth.

“Ah… thank you.”

Nodding my head, I moved on to record the next part.

This time it was a part laying down low harmonies…

“Wow… with this level, your instincts are clearly natural. First of all, your tone is so good. Your tone does more than half the work.”

“Th-thank you.”

“You got a really good part. I mean, you probably would’ve done well no matter what part you got!”

This feels overly biased, doesn’t it.

It’s overwhelming!

Maybe he was sincerely thankful I took his side during the conflict with THE-H and the song dispute, because his praise was coming at me with overwhelming high tension.

“Kyah… I love it so much.”

“Wow, seriously, this is so good!”

“Shall we check out the next part?”

Is it just me?

My ears have been feeling a little hot for a while now.

I coughed and rubbed my slightly flushed ear with one hand.

From outside the recording booth, the hyungs were laughing out loud. Jin Sehyun muttered in awe.

“Wow, that’s the fastest way to make Do Seohan cry.”

“He already looks like he’s about to tear up~.”

Bingo.

My hands holding the lyrics sheet were trembling ever so slightly.

If I had gotten any more praise at that point, I might’ve lost focus completely… thankfully, the recording ended just in time.

Hyukwon gave a thumbs up and said,

“Great job. You were the best till the end!”

“Thank you….”

As soon as the recording ended, I made a quick escape.

The personal recording ended quickly amidst the warm praise.

There was still some time before dance class, so I decided to go live.

Members had been doing individual livestreams on and off this week, but since it was hard to find a good time for a group live, we kept postponing it.

But no way we’d miss out on recording day.

The members huddled together, waving their hands toward the camera.

Right then, Jin Sehyun said a word.

“Oh, it’s on.”

Fans started pouring in as soon as the livestream notification popped up. The viewer count at the top of the screen skyrocketed.

We waved at the camera and checked the comments. The members had gotten pretty used to lives by now.

The title of the live had been decided by Seo Haim, who’d attached this cute animal emoticon.

[Absolutely No Spoilers Livestream!!! Come Join Us!! (Animal Emoticon)]

“Haim, the title’s too long, it’s getting cut off….”

“Ah.”

-It’s fine, it was cute

-Seo Ian what is going on with that face today

-Please spoil somethingㅠㅠㅠ what were you guys up to today??

-umm…socute…

Before the live started, we had made a promise among ourselves.

It’s still way too early to drop spoilers.

We were sure fans would sneak in various indirect questions during the stream, but we decided not to waver.

Seo Haim shook his head firmly with a resolute look.

“Today!! We’re absolutely not spoiling anything.”

“That’s right.”

“Not even a tiny hint. Especially you—Mr. Cha Seongbin.”

“I’m the one to watch out for?”

Cha Seongbin asked back with a sheepish grin.

“But everyone~. I’m keeping my mouth shut today too.”

“Exactly. And while we are kind of scrambling to prepare for something, there’s really nothing confirmed yet to even spoil…”

While Ha Junseo was engaging with fans, I skimmed through the rapidly scrolling comments.

“Hmm…”

Ah.

“What we were doing today is…”

I spoke without thinking.

“We just came back from recording. And practice.”

“…?”

“Huh?”

Excuse me?

-These crazy kids are out here recording ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-Is it the title track? I literally can’t stand the curiosity. What’s the vibe?

-Holy crap it’s coming soon… I’m hanging in thereㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-Please spoil the comeback date

-Seohan, couldn’t you just sing one line, please?

Wait a minute.

“We said no spoilers.”

“Ah.”

“This wasn’t allowed either?”

“Nope!”

Kang Siwoo grabbed me by the scruff of the neck.

I didn’t mean to drop a spoiler, but I added with a smile.

“Should I just sing one line while we’re at it?”

“Hey, someone shut Do Seohan up!”

“Somebody stop him!!!!”

“A suffocating—kgh!”

I was immediately shut down.

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